Tomorrow's Bleeding
by SadieMarie
Summary: slight!AU Riku and Namine's paths have crossed by fate in this desolate world. Each with a history the other doesn't fully comprehend. As this chance friendship blooms, what hardship will follow? Namiku; Short Story; AMV/FanFiction mix: details inside


Hello. :O Welcome!

This story is something new. Fresh. Not only for you, but for me as well!

This short story will be a compilation of Story/AMV's.

So with _**almost**_ every chapter (3....probably a few more), there will be a corresponding video. A link to which will be provided in the ending author's note, as well as on my profile here at .

Also, hello there those of you who viewed the AMV first.

I don't honestly think it makes a difference on which you do first; watch or read. Questions will most likely be answered to the other by watching and reading.

So, yesh. :3

Umm... A/U. Sort of. I wanted to keep the characters with their personalities and such as they were in the games. Just the surroundings and events are different than the games. Just a heads up.

* * *

_A vision. A flash of lightning. She concentrated on focusing the images her mind's eye was providing. A figure, dressed in black. The… was it a man? __N__o, built more like a boy__ —__ was slowly making his way down a dimly lit alleyway. The rain began to worsen, and the already soaked concrete could not absorb any more droplets. Deep, black puddles of cold water formed in the concavities of the ground._

_A flash of lightning. The images changed. As she struggled to clear the distorted figures, she realized the cloaked person was surround__ed__ by enemies known as neo-shadows. They were rare creatures__ that__ only came up from their shadowy lives in the presence of __darkness, like__ their own. The boy pulled out a blade __that had been__ concealed inside his black coat and began swinging it with great skill._

_The images in her head rearranged themselves to show her a glimpse of the boy's face. Nothing more than a few strands of silver hair, a nose, and a mouth. The image didn't linger long enough to allow her to find a name. More neo-shadows attacked from the air but the boy was ready for them. It was as if the whole fight itself __was__ some choreographed action movie, but the girl knew otherwise._

_As if in slow motion, the boy leapt into the air, attacking in aerial spins as he gained altitude. Of course, everyone is susceptible to gravity, and as the boy fell back down to earth, he hurled his blade to finish off a following shadow. Upon slicing through the creature, the blade fell right into the hand of the boy who continued to defend himself. A perfectly performed move that would take even the greatest fighters years to perfect._

_Images reassembled once again, and hundreds upon thousands of shadows had the boy surrounded. __There was__ another close up at the boys face, but __still,__ the vision would not give her a name._

Please_, she thought._ A name is all I need_._

_A gust of wind, a flash of lightning, and for a split second, the boy's entire face was revealed. Long silver locks adorned his oval shaped face. His eyes were covered with some sort of black band. A smirk on his face as he prepared himself to finish off the creatures. __Although__ it was only a second's time, it was enough for her._

Riku_._

_The name reverberated inside the walls of her mind as the vision ended, and the bright white walls and floor of her room came into focus once more._

_The girl picked up her sketch pad, and began drawing the new visions of memories of this mysterious boy._

_A home __—__ an island. She sketched quickly, not caring for quality as it would only be her and her father's eyes that would ever see the drawings. Small slivers of memory flashed in and out of her mind. She was trying to learn anything and everything about this, "_Riku_". It was only a matter of time before he found his way to her. She had to know everything before meeting with him face to face._

* * *

I blinked my eyes. What had it been? It was only a few hours since the door slammed shut on me. Only the hours felt like millennia. And why was this place so damn bright? Did everything from floor to ceiling need to be that god-awful shade of white? The decorations were the same color as the walls… Even the flowers were white for God's sake!

After my eyes adjusted to the brightness of this place, I tried to think. Where was I? How did I get here? I could remember following a path that led to this mansion. I supposed I shouldn't have just let myself in. I probably should have knocked first… but what did it matter? What were the chances of finding anyone like myself on _this_ side of the door? Not many people had been cast away here during my time…

_Might as well explore_, I thought to myself. I could see that there was only one door at the end of this hallway, so I figured might as well take it. I opened the heavy white door as silently as I could, and peeked inside. I didn't see anyone in the room, so I entered, not bothering to close the door behind me.

"Where am I?" I wondered aloud. The room was the same color as everything else in this place. White - a sick shade of purple-ish, _white_. There was a small table in the center of the room, with two chairs neatly pushed into place. There were miscellaneous sheets of blank paper and colored pencils strewn across the table.

I looked over to the wall, only to find it adorned with pictures. Drawings. They were more like sketches, really. I didn't think a thing of it until one of the drawings caught my eye. Though it was obviously a rough sketch, it resembled my home island to a tee. As I looked at the other drawings, I realized that I was able to recognize each one. I'd seen the places and people, and even the objects sometime or another in my past.

"What…?" I asked out loud. I wondered if maybe there were living beings here from the same home island as me. It had been so long since I'd actually been "home". Would I know the person who drew these? Would I recognize them as a friend from my child hood?

My expertly trained ear caught the sound of small footsteps coming from behind me.

"Who's there!?" I yelled, readying myself for a fight.

"My name," a girl's voice answered, "Is Naminé."

I turned to face her. She was a petite girl, maybe five-one. There was no way she could have weighed more than a hundred and five pounds. Her blonde hair was tucked neatly behind her right ear, flowing onto her shoulder. Her light blue eyes stared back at me. She was wearing a fitted white dress. I was only to assume that "white" was the theme of this castle.

Wait…

"Naminé!?" My thought came out as a shout. I'd seen her somewhere before.

"Yes," her small voice answered.

"I see! That was you!" I replied. Yes, it was definitely her. I knew her, but from where!? Trying to think of the exact place I'd seen her was giving me a headache.

"Huh?" She cocked her head to the side, resembling a confused puppy.

"Forget it," I told her. I didn't want to risk the migraine. I'd try to remember later. It would bug me until I could remember where I'd seen her before.

As she looked at me, I got the odd sensation she already knew me. Had we been friends back on the island? The more she stared at me, the more I felt like I was being read like a book. It was then a new sensation entered my thoughts. Suddenly, I could feel her — even though she was clearly standing a good three feet away from me—in my mind. It was as if she were standing in my head and not in the room at all.

It was then that I realized how I'd recognized her before. She was never physically with me at anytime at all. She had been in my head. Though it was through dreams, I remembered feeling her presence in the same fashion. I relived many of my memories in my dreams, and that was where I'd felt her. I was sure of it. In the deepest secrets of my memories. Was this real? I guessed I shouldn't rule anything out now that I was on the other side of the door. Things here didn't need to make sense here. The rules of the world of Light didn't apply in the chaotic world of Dark.

"Riku," her soothing voice called me back to reality. How had she known my name? I didn't remember introducing myself.

"Don't you want to know the truth?" Her eyes held a speck of sorrow.

_The truth_, I thought. As I pondered her question, I began to wonder what "truth" really meant. What was truth but what we believed it to be? Thinking along those lines, everything I'd ever known as truth could be lies. It all made sensenow. Too bad it hadn't before I'd been cast away in this world to rot. Truth. Lies. Both the same in their own right.

I opened my eyes, and smirked. She didn't need an audible "yes".

She took a deep breath and began, "I'm a witch,"

As she turned her gaze away from mine to tell her tale, I looked down from the floor. "Witch". It was no wonder I found this girl on this side of the Great Door. Anyone who claimed to be a witch or was accused of being one, was immediately cast away here. Shoved right through the door without a trial. It was barbaric, really. One would think that in these times, "innocent until proven guilty" would stand true. But then again, what was "truth" anyways?

At least_ I_ was given a fair trial — though I deserved to be thrown in this world without one. What I'd done… What I wished I could have changed… before "_he_" came into my life. It was at that moment he convinced me to join him, that the darkness entered my heart.

Anyone caught with dark hearts were immediately cast away. The adult regulations on darkness don't apply to minors. I was lucky I was still considered a child and given a speedy, yet fair (if one could call it that) court hearing. In the end, I still ended up with a thirty year sentence to rot here. Like anyone could even last thirty years here. The only people that ever came back from this place were those with six month sentences. And even still, they didn't quite come back "_whole_".

I realized my mind was drifting, but not more than thirty seconds had gone by, and the girl, Naminé, had not noticed my glazed over eyes from the day dream.

"Witch. That's what "he" called me," she said quietly, though her voice was able to be carried throughout the entire room.

_Who's this "_he_"?_ I wondered.

"But," she continued, my aqua eyes meeting her sky colored ones, "I don't know why I have this power. I just _do_."

"But," I interrupted her, "No one's messed with my memories," _as far as I knew_, I said to myself.

Her gaze left mine as she brought her small hand to her heart.

"It's not your memories," she paused, "It's your darkness."

I gasped. How could she have known? Upon realizing what _he_, my teacher, was planning to do with me, I did everything in my power to conceal my darkness. Though even with my extreme skill and knowledge of how to control myself in public, it wasn't enough to fool the government's high-tech machinery.

"In your heart there is darkness," she continued.

I remembered the words they, the jury, had called me. The most offensive names didn't hurt my feelings, no. I had been desensitized to them when my teacher first began training me in the Dark arts. Only one name stuck out in my mind as the most offensive thing anyone could say to another. I remembered clearly what the judge of my case had called me to my face.

"As if I'm some kind of "demon"," I said angrily. Not at Naminé, but at the judge. Everyone that had been there in that court room. Even my own attorney hated me and called me by offensive terms.

Naminé ignored my frustration as she informed, "With my powers, I can put a tight lock on your heart."

She let me take her words in before adding, "Darkness. Sealed tight, just like your memory."

As I subconsciously moved my hand to cover my heart, Naminé said words I had thought impossible until now. "You'll stop remembering the darkness."

Upon hearing those words, I wanted to jump on her offer without as much of a second thought. Until I began to actually think about the offer. If I forgot the darkness, and the hold it used to have on me until I pushed it away, I would forget something more important.

Me.

I'd lose who I'd become. I'd known living with darkness for twelve years. Everything that the darkness had made me into would be gone. To add to that, I would forget this girl, Naminé.

Looking at her, though I'd only known her for mere minutes, I don't think I could ever lose her. She was the type of girl one went to war in order to protect her. Looking into her emotion filled eyes, I could feel that there was a connection between us. Fate had drawn us together here, in the most desolate of places. That wasn't worth forgetting.

"I don't need my heart locked," I answered strictly.

Now with true fear in her eyes, she cried out, "But what—! If the darkness in you— overtakes you!"

"Figures," I muttered. That was what I deserved. It would be a fitting punishment if the darkness that stirred in my heart would overtake me. It took all my concentration to keep it bottled up in the confines of my heart.

"_Those who__ are the strongest__,"_ my teacher had once said_, "can control the darkness. The weakest are the ones that let it flow at its own will through their veins."_

It was after that that he discovered my talent for being able to control the darkness that had now taken over my life. He only ever saw me as a secret weapon. I wished I'd been able to realize that back then.

After staring into each other's eyes in silence, Naminé asked me to choose — to choose whether or not to keep the black darkness in my heart, or to rid my body of it forever.

Choice. Something I'd not been offered since I was five years old. Not that I _actually_ had a choice then. If I'd have told my teacher 'no', there was no doubt in my mind that he would have killed me right then and there only to move on to his next victim.

"Please?" She asked me with a smile that I couldn't resist. As I looked to her eyes, I realized that whatever light was still in my heart could not, and would not, tell this girl 'no'.

"I'll have to," I reluctantly answered.

She gave me a small smile, causing a strange burning sensation to erupt in my stomach. I did not find it to be an unpleasant feeling. I wondered what life would be like without the darkness, not that it really mattered much now that I was in _this_ realm. It wouldn't make a difference to my thirty-year sentence whether the darkness was gone, or if it completely consumed me. I'd die here before anyone would think twice about my name.

"What'll happen to me if I let you do that?" I asked her, curious of my fate. "Will I forget…?"

She looked away, troubled by her own thoughts.

"…everything?" I added to my question, though I already knew the answer from her lack of eye contact.

She avoided my gaze for the longest, agonizing time. The next time she looked up, a tear was running down her cheek.

"Yes." Her voice ringing through the room, loud and clear.

* * *

Oh me gee. :O

First off, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my lovely video beta-testers. :3

You guys are awesome. :D

-gives cookies-

Here's the link that I promised: youtube(dot)com/watch?v=feBmHAYC7Qs&fmt=18

(be sure to add a period where it says (dot), and add the "www." part as well.

Or go to my profile. A link is there. Navigation should be relatively easy.

Review and tell me whatcha think. 8D


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